UNESCO: CUBAN REPRESENTATIVE ATTACKS U.S. IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 002138

SIPDIS

FROM USMISSION UNESCO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL UNESCO
SUBJECT: UNESCO: CUBAN REPRESENTATIVE ATTACKS U.S. IN
HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING COMMITTEE


1. Summary: Cuba's permanent representative to UNESCO took
the opportunity to attack the U.S. today in a UNESCO
committee charged with monitoring human rights cases.
Ambassador Oliver responded with a short formal statement
denouncing the Cuban intervention. End summary.


2. UNESCO's Committee on Conventions and Recommendations
(CR,) which monitors and responds to human rights violations
in member states, met this morning, Thursday, 29 March, to
review communications from a variety of human rights groups.
Five cases raised today concerned Cuban citizens, all of
whom were imprisoned for political activities. Over the past
few days, the committee had reviewed cases from Belarus,
China, Japan, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia, and Vietnam.


3. The CR committee, after reaching consensus by its
members, generally sends a formal request to the government
on behalf of UNESCO requesting the individual be granted
clemency, or asks for their immediate release based on
humanitarian grounds. While the committee has had moderate
success in improving the situation of some prisoners, other
cases have been on its agenda for years (e.g., a Chinese
case from 1991) with little or no change.


4. The Cuban cases concerned the following people;
communication number 992/99 Francisco Pastor Chaviano
Gonzalez; communication number 1038/2003 Oscar Manuel
Espinosa Chepe; communication number 1039/2003 Oscar Elias
Biscet Gonzales; communication number 1051/2003 Hector
Fernando Maseda Gutierrez; communication number 1052/2003
Jose Luis Garcia Paneque. All of these cases had been
reviewed the by the CR Committee in previous sessions.


5. The head of the Cuban delegation, Hector Hernandez
Gonzalez-Pardo, listened to the Director General's
representative give a short summary of the issues and
problems of each case as noted in the communications
received by UNESCO. Gonzalez-Pardo then responded
vehemently to the committee's chairman calling the
communications, "distortions of fact and of truth," and said
that the people who signed them have been manipulated.


6. He went on to say that the US is recruiting and paying
mercenaries in Cuba, financing activities to undermine the
legitimate government, and said that the individuals had all
committed crimes against the state supported by the CIA and
the US Interests Section in Havana. Gonzalez-Pardo ended
his 45-minute tirade by asking the chairman to drop all
these cases from the committee's agenda. The silence of the
committee members following the Cuban's intervention was
also notable, and was later explained as not wanting to
dignify the Cuban's remarks by asking questions of him.
After a break, the committee resumed, and Ambassador Oliver
took her seat to make the following statement.


7. Begin quote. Thank you Mr. Chairman. It is regrettable
and unfortunate that a committee intended to be a 'good
offices' committee to push for reconciliation and dialogue
on communications involving human rights violations should
have had its time abused this morning for over 45 minutes by
vituperative language directed against my country. This is
not the level of dignified discourse we expect at this
committee. The United States does not believe that the
irresponsible statements made this morning against us merit
any substantive response. We would like to have this
statement reflected in the permanent record. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. End quote.


8. After Ambassador Oliver's departure from the room, a
representative from Ecuador, Mr. Juan Cueva, who we were
told was formerly Ecuador's ambassador to France, delivered
brief remarks strongly supporting Cuba. We were told later
by Ecuador's regular representative that Cueva is a deputy
at Ecuador's Ministry of Education and was present in Paris
over the objection of the Foreign Ministry. We were told he
was freelancing, though he began his remarks with the
mention that he was under specific instructions to
intervene. DCM Koss responded forcefully to Cueva, saying
that he regretted Cueva's statement, and that the cases
before the CR were about Cuba and human rights, and not
about the United States.


9. Several representatives of other member states,
including Czech, Mexico, and, notably, India were supportive
to the U.S. in regards to Cuba's surprising intervention.
All of the cases were kept on the committee's agenda, and a
draft letter to the government of Cuba is being prepared
which will note their representative's presence, without
mention of his helpfulness or appreciation of the
information he brought, as is normally done. Comments from
various representatives to the committee urged that the
committee continue to work based on the good faith of its
members and not fall into the trap of politicizing its
deliberations.

Oliver